


Dear Ifalna

by splinterfranxx



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Aerith Week 2021, Aerti, Canon Compliant, Clerith, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII Spoilers, F/F, F/M, Final Fantasy VII Spoilers, Gen, I just happened to post it this week, Letters, Minor Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife, Minor Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart, Minor Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough, Reminiscing, Zerith - Freeform, except I didn't even look at the prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29367366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/splinterfranxx/pseuds/splinterfranxx
Summary: "Elmyra said I should write these letters to you. So, here’s my first one!"From childhood to the City of the Ancients, Aerith Gainsborough has a story to tell.
Relationships: Implied Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife, Implied Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart, implied Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Dear Ifalna

**Author's Note:**

> hihi I love Aerith!
> 
> I've had this concept in my head for a while so I'm glad to finally put the proverbial pen to paper. Thanks always to hoegeta  for being a sweetheart and supporting my fic ideas. I love you <3
> 
> Thanks also to my betas Ethereal_Blade and 04JETTA!

Dear Ifalna,

Mom said I should write these letters to you. So, here’s my first one! I hope I do good and I hope you can see these, even if you’re not here with me. I know where you are though. You’re back with the planet. So I’m sure you can see me writing this. 

A scary man came to our house today. He had long black hair and these mean-looking eyes. He wore a suit with a black tie, and had a dot in the center of his forehead. He told me I was special and that I was an Ancient. That’s when mom told me about you and how you’re my real mom. I knew the whole time though. I just...didn’t want to remember.

I miss you, Mom. I know Mom...wait. That might be confusing. I’ll just call her Mom and you Ifalna for now. Anyway. I know Mom is taking the best care of me that she can, but I miss being with you. Even though the tests at the lab were scary, I liked talking about the Promised Land with you Ifalna. Mr. Tseng told me I’m going to lead someone there someday. I don’t want to though. It sounds important and the people Mr. Tseng works for are bad. At least that’s what Mom told me. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention. Mr. Tseng is the man who came to our house.

Mom says it’s bedtime now. I hope you like being with the planet. And I hope you get to see Dad. Bye, Ifalna.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

Wow, I really picked up this diary and put it down for a while, huh? It’s been a few years since I first wrote to you, but something happened today that I felt I needed to tell you about. But, who am I kidding, you probably know already. So, I was tending to the flowers in the church when I look up and see someone fall from the sky. And, wham, he hits the floor, out cold. He starts murmuring something about his mom while I’m trying to wake him up and then all of a sudden, he wakes up. Nothing too unusual yet, I know. But, here’s where it gets good. He starts thanking me for saving him, calling me an “angel” and then, get this, asks me on a date. A date! With someone he’d just met a few seconds prior. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

I will admit he’s good looking. He’s got this dark hair that frames his face like a mane, with these big, sky-blue eyes I could just get lost in. He’s cocky, brave, and a bit of a show-off; I can tell he takes pride in his strength. Still, I can tell he’s a nice guy at heart - he offered to pay for medicine for a boy who stole his wallet, even though he couldn’t afford it. In another act of kindness, he offered to help me sell flowers in what he calls “Operation Midgar Full of Flowers, Wallet full of Money,” and we’re getting a cart too. Oh yeah, and he bought me this adorable pink bow. Honestly, I quite like him. He had to leave on important SOLDIER business, but I hope he comes back soon.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

Zack’s gone. I can feel it. After he came back to me, the boy with the dark hair and the blue eyes and the huge, all-encompassing smile, things were finally happy. We were happy, just the two of us. But then he was called away on important business...and I haven’t heard from him since. It’s been almost 5 years since that day. I’ve written him letter after letter with no reply. I honestly don’t know if he even received them.

Ifalna, is this what heartbreak feels like? Is this what you felt like when Dad died? Like there’s this huge, gaping hole in your chest that you want so  _ desperately  _ to fill but know nothing ever will? Mom...no, Elmyra tried to comfort me the best she could, but I miss him dearly. I miss the ways his eyes light up when he talks about something that excites him. I miss how he smiles so brightly when he’s near me. I miss his corny jokes and attempts to be suave - everything that’s so uniquely him.

If he’s with you in the Lifestream right now, would you tell him I said hello? Or, maybe…   
  


Would you tell him that I love him?

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

Something very, very strange happened today. But, also strangely, it’s happened to me before. If I got 1 gil for every time someone fell through the church ceiling onto my flowers, I’d have 2 gil - which isn’t a lot, but it’s extremely weird that it’s happened twice. When I saw the figure approach, I won’t lie, I really hoped it was Zack. Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t, although he strangely reminds me of Zack somehow.

His name is Cloud. I actually met him in Sector 8 a little while ago while selling flowers. He’s a former First-Class SOLDIER, just like Zack. He’s got blonde, downy hair that looks like a Chocobo and Zack’s blue eyes, albeit a bit greener than his. He’s grouchy, honestly, and very no-nonsense, but I can tell he’s just trying to be cool though. We got away from Reno - he’s a Turk who keeps an eye on me when Rude or Tseng aren’t around - and he helped me out around Sector 5. I know he cares a lot about the Planet, even though he pretends he’s just a mercenary. He even claims to have joined an eco-terrorist group called AVALANCHE, who fights to “free the world from Shinra’s tyranny.”

Tomorrow, I’m taking him back to Sector 7. He mentioned a “Tifa” to me today while we were rescuing some of the local children, and though he tried to play it off, I can tell she means a lot to him. I hope I get to meet her. From the way he talked about her, she seems like a genuinely kind person. 

I think I just heard the floorboard creak. Sounds like he’s getting a head start on me. I’m seeing him home, though, if it’s the last thing I do. I just hope Elmyra doesn’t catch me!

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

I’m writing this from a little town called Kalm. You might be asking yourself: Aerith, are you not in Midgar? And the answer is: yes! After Cloud and I headed back to Sector 7, we ran into Tifa heading for Wall Market in a Chocobo carriage. She was wearing this gorgeous blue dress, might I add. After tracking her down and infiltrating Don Corneo’s mansion, as well as getting dolled up in an amazing red dress (Cloud wore an absolutely beautiful dress too, and he’s got dance moves to boot), we made our way through the sewers to try and stop Shinra from dropping the plate on Sector 7. I was captured trying to save Barret’s daughter (he’s an AVALANCHE member as well, their leader, actually) by Tseng and taken to Shinra HQ. I heard the plate ended up falling - I can only hope all the people that were lost made their way to the planet safely.

Professor Hojo tried to perform all sorts of experiments on me. He even insulted you a few times - man I wanted to punch him. He’s lucky the glass in my containment chamber was reinforced. I met a friend though, named Red XIII...but I won’t go into exactly how I met him. I’m sure you know, but Hojo is one disgusting guy. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret ended up rescuing me, though, and we all headed out of Midgar, trying to find this ex-SOLDIER named Sephiroth. From the sound of it, he’s bad news - and, honestly, I expected as much. While we were all in Shinra holding cells after the Turks recaptured us, he broke in and slaughtered several platoon’s worth of grunts before dealing with President Shinra himself.

Cloud told us he’d meet us at the inn to tell us the full Sephiroth story, and, from the sound of it, he’s not too far away. I hope we’re able to find Sephiroth soon. 

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

Remember what I said about Sephiroth sounding bad? Well, he’s about ten times worse. Scratch that, he’s worse than I ever could’ve imagined. Cloud told me that while he and Sephiroth were deployed to Nibelheim, Cloud and Tifa’s hometown, Sephiroth ended up flying into a rage and burning the town to the ground - killing Cloud’s mom and Tifa’s dad in the process. I can’t imagine how painful that must’ve been. 

We’re at the Costa Del Sol beach right now. Tomorrow, we head for Gold Saucer through the Corel Mountains - Sephiroth intercepted us on the boat from Junon and told us to head that way. After leaving Kalm, we headed through the Mythril Mine. However, an unseen threat blocked our way - a massive snake known as the Midgar Zolom. He easily defeated us, forcing us to catch a Chocobo in the nearby grasslands and ride it across the swamp. After running into the Turks in the mines, we headed for Junon, where Cloud infiltrated a ceremony celebrating the new Shinra President, Rufus Shinra. It was really funny trying to watch him blend in and march. I got to wear a Shinra uniform too! Oh yeah, and we met a ninja named Yuffie too on the way. She’s joined our team and while she’s a little blunt, I know she’ll be a good person to have with us.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

So much has happened in the past few days. Most of it, unfortunately, was really painful to go though.. But, first, let me tell you what’s happened since my last letter in Costa del Sol. We left for Gold Saucer, but had to pass through a little town called Corel. When we made it to the Gold Saucer using their ropeway, I thought it was the end of it, but the owner threw us into the Corel Prison below after he suspected we killed some Shinra guards. First of all - the wounds were bullets, and none of us even use a gun. Well, except Barret, but he’d been missing the whole day, so we knew he couldn’t have done it! (Cloud, Tifa, and a new friend named Cait Sith were the ones actually “caught.” Red XIII, Yuffie, and I found them later.) Down in Corel Prison, however, we found the perpetrator behind the murders - a man named Dyne, Barret’s old friend.

He told us that he resented Shinra for causing the destruction of Corel and framing him and Barret for the explosion at the Mako reactor there. Which, after listening to his story, admittedly got me very angry as well. He lost everything, including his wife, his arm, and, for the longest time, he thought he lost his daughter as well. Turns out Marlene, Barret’s daughter, is Dyne’s biological offspring. We offered Dyne a chance to come with us and help us defeat Shinra and Sephiroth, but he was too far gone. He ended up jumping off a cliff after he challenged Barret to a fight. I hope he can finally rest in peace.

After Cloud won a Chocobo race (I think he’s such a good jockey because he looks like a Chocobo himself), we were allowed out of Corel Prison, and gifted a buggy for our trouble by Dio. We used it to cross some shallow water and continue pursuing Sephiroth, but, on the way...we stopped in Gongaga. Gongaga, I found out, is Zack’s hometown.

When the people in a house we visited introduced themselves as Zack’s parents...I froze. There was this...horrid pain in my chest, like my heart had been stabbed and my stomach had opened up into a pit of dread. I know, deep down, that he’s gone...but his parents not knowing his fate gave me some hope that he maybe, just maybe, is still alive. They said they hadn’t heard from him in years though - definitely not since he left for Nibelheim.

I know it’s foolish to hope, but crazier things have happened in the past. I just hope, wherever he is, that he’s happy.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

I’m back in the Gold Saucer. Cloud and I went to see a play and took a ride on the ferris wheel tonight, and I had a lot of fun! At my request, we didn’t stay the night in Gongaga, and instead trekked a few more miles to Cosmo Canyon, the home of Red XIII, or, should I say, Nanaki. It was just too painful for me to bear another second in that town - everything reminded me of him, from the shining eyes of his parents to the caring smile of the innkeeper as Cloud tried to book us rooms. We met Nanaki’s grandfather, Bugenhagen, who taught us about the Cetra and the Lifestream - all things I was already taught by you, but it was nice to meet another who truly knows our culture. 

That night, we sat at the Cosmo Candle, a bonfire in the middle of the canyon that is said never to extinguish. We sat, all of us enjoying each others’ company, until Cloud, Nanaki, and Tifa left for a few hours. I found out later that Nanaki learned the truth of his father, someone he had resented so much he left the name he gave him behind. Nanaki’s father, Seto, was thought to be a coward, yet turned out to be a hero. He defended Cosmo Canyon from the Gi tribe when they invaded and lost his life in the process. In a way, he reminds me of you, Ifalna - you protected me when I needed it most. Thank you for taking that chance and giving me an opportunity to have a better life.

We headed for Nibelheim next, which, strangely, was not burnt to the ground, and infested with these tattooed men talking about a “reunion.” We met a new friend named Vincent in the Shinra Manor there, and he agreed to help us. We chased Sephiroth through Mt. Nibel and ended up in a place called Rocket Town, the site of a failed rocket launch four years prior. Cid Highwind, the captain of that rocket, also agreed to join us, and we escaped Rufus Shinra and Palmer (another Shinra executive) in a plane called the Tiny Bronco.

Sephiroth told us he’d be at the Temple of the Ancients. I feel as if a lot of Cetra history will be uncovered there, so I’m strangely excited to leave tomorrow. 

Oh yeah! Remember Cait Sith from a few letters ago? Well, he introduced himself as a fortune teller, but, it turns out, he’s a Shinra spy! He stole the Keystone that unlocks the Temple of the Ancients from us, gave it to Shinra, and took Marlene as a hostage to keep Cloud and me quiet. I swear, as soon as Marlene’s safe, that cat has another thing coming!

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

I know now that I hold the key to stopping potentially catastrophic events. I know it’s because of the memento you left me with. I’ve never honestly felt like I knew my purpose in life until today, but, now that I’ve been imbued with the knowledge of the Cetra, I know my duty as the last remaining Cetra is to save the planet from the calamity from the sky.

The Temple of the Ancients was beautiful, Ifalna. I could hear the voices of our ancestors emanating around me, guiding me, giving me strength. Despite the confusing paths and elaborate traps, Cloud, Tifa, and I managed to confront Sephiroth at the deepest part of the Temple. He told us he intended to unleash Meteor and absorb the Lifestream to become some sort of god, which I know I must stop using any means necessary.

We obtained the Black materia before he could, but...something in Cloud isn’t right, Ifalna. He started shaking, muttering to himself, then attacked me and willingly gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth. Cloud has sworn that Sephiroth is his greatest enemy time after time - he’d never do this if something wasn’t wrong. That’s why I’m taking the helm in defeating Sephiroth.

I’m in the City of the Ancients. I can feel something big coming. But, I’m alright accepting my fate. I have a duty to protect this planet not only as a Cetra, but as a creature who lives on it. If I had the power to ensure the people I love get to live another day, I wouldn’t hesitate to do what needs to be done. Holy must be cast if the Planet is to be saved.

I love you, Mom. I don’t know how the next few hours will go. But, if I do leave this world today, I’m very, very excited to see you again.

I have so much to tell you.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Dear Ifalna,

My name is Tifa Lockhart. I was a friend of your daugher...except “friend” doesn’t do her justice. Aerith was the sort of person people naturally gravitate to: infectious personality, boundless optimism, and a cheerful smile for everyone she met. I know our little family wouldn’t have been the same without her. And I know I wouldn’t be the same person I am today had I never met her.

After all of this was over, Aerith and I were going to go shopping, topside. A date, she called it. Cloud was going to have to carry our bags. I was looking forward to it - I mean, who wouldn’t look forward to an outing with the most spunky, outspoken, kind girl on the Planet? She really meant a lot to all of us. To Cloud.

To me.

When I saw Sephiroth descend, blade at the ready, I...I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, sorry. I just...I miss her so much.

I’m sorry I couldn’t save her.


End file.
